


hold the stars in place

by skitzofreak



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: 1 sentence challenge, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Pining, non chronological, punctuation abuse, rated for some language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 15:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11900382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skitzofreak/pseuds/skitzofreak
Summary: Pieces of a life, before, during, and after Scarif.OR: 50 one-sentence challenge for rebelcaptain





	hold the stars in place

**Author's Note:**

> None of these are in chronological order, and some of them are convoluted beyond understanding, but I needed to blow off the steam.

#01 – Comfort

It's just a light touch, palms smoothing over his neck and across his shoulders, but the pounding in his head eases, and Cassian closes his eyes in silent gratitude.  


 

#02 - Kiss

"She said, 'I'd just as soon kiss a wookie," Chirrut recounts cheerfully, and Cassian's chest tightens as Jyn laughs out loud, brief, bright, beautiful.  


 

#03 – Soft

Her hands are scarred knuckles, rough palms, torn fingernails, and he marvels at how gently they comb through his hair and brush against his temples.  


 

#04 – Pain

He turns abruptly and looks at her with his spy mask, all vague politeness over obvious boredom, and Jyn flinches from the blow.  


 

#05 – Potatoes

"It's a kind of starchy root thing," Jyn tells Bodhi indifferently, "not great eating, but it keeps well and it can be useful in surprising ways - " and that's all the warning Cassian gets before she launches a glob of the stuff straight at his face.   


 

#06 - Rain

Cassian keeps throwing her tense, silent glances as they hike through the downpour; Jyn doesn't know if she'd rather he ignore her completely or turn and acknowledge the chill of Eadu's memory dripping down both their collars.  


 

#07 - Chocolate

"Now this," Cassian says with a cautious almost-smile, an offer to temper one of their old, ugly misunderstandings with something new, something clean, "is a real luxury."  


 

#08 - Happiness

He's almost asleep, drifting on the foggy edge of oblivion, so maybe he only dreams it when she turns her head into his chest and whispers, "is this what it feels like?"  


#09 – Talk

The cacophony of the crushing market crowd drowns any chance of speaking aloud, but she bumps his shoulder to direct him down the right alley, he presses against her back to speed her steps through a gap in the throng, and they get where they're going in time.  


 

#10 - Ears

His face is a mask, smooth and impenetrable as durasteel, but his ears are slowly turning red, so Jyn smirks and flicks open another button.  


 

#11 - Name

She doesn't grimace when he digs his fingers into her arms, eyes wild and desperate; it isn't until he whispers, "I forgot which one was real," in the uncertain tones of a man still half in his nightmare that her lips thin, her jaw clenches.  


 

#12 - Sensual

"Stop," she grits her teeth and gives him her best glare, "Licking. Your. Damn. Lips."  


 

#13 – Death

"I can't promise to come back," he says quietly, his arms warm and tight and real around her, "but I'll try."  


 

#14 - Sex

_I never knew it could be like this_ , Jyn thinks from somewhere within the bright, desperate joy that sings across her skin and burns through her veins, _I never knew anyone could feel so_ -  


 

#15 - Touch

Jyn equates contact with combat, Cassian spent most of his adult life with a droid as his only meaningful relationship; she can't really account for their behavior until she looks up "touch starvation," and then she understands.  


 

#16 - Weakness

He's determined to keep his wits - she's in the wrong and he's not going to let it go, damn it - but she digs her fingers into the nape of his neck and he feels the irritation slipping, transmuting into something softer but no less warm.  


 

#17 - Tears

Cassian's fingers are painfully tight in her hair, yanking her head backwards, but Jyn can feel the tremor of panic in his fingers so she stay silent, blinking when he commands her to do so and letting the cleansing bacta clear the last of the acid from her eyes.  
  


 

#18 - Speed

"You're not getting slow on me, are you, Super Spy?" she laughs, and Cassian growls at her, putting in a last burst of energy to lunge forward and tackle her to the floor at last.  


 

#19 – Wind

Jyn anchors her hand on the back of Cassian's belt, but the urge to punch is growing stronger and stronger - until Chirrut suddenly says, "Captain, I fear that a great, hot wind has blown all of the sense from this conversation," and she relaxes into Cassian’s laugh, even as the pompous blowhard splutters.  


 

#20 - Freedom

"You could have been free," Cassian slurs as the machines monitoring his life signs beep and flash; but Jyn thinks of six empty, bitter years and knows she would take the chains he offers (welcome home) every time.  


 

#21 - Life

"You're stuck with me," Jyn's smile it lopsided and tight, like even she isn't sure if she's joking; "good," Cassian replies, and he isn't.  


 

#22 – Jealousy

"Of course they are," Jyn raises an eyebrow at an uncomfortable Bodhi, "he's gorgeous; why wouldn't they?"  


 

#23 – Hands

Jyn watches his long, clever fingers deftly twist through the mess of wires and circuits and wants to smack herself; she is _not_ getting all hot and bothered over a man doing _droid maintenance_.  


 

#24 – Taste

_You might as well be a stormtrooper_ rings in his ears, burns his eyes, seeps like bile across his tongue, and he hates the taste of his rage, his guilt, he hates it, he hates her, _he hates himself_ -  


 

#25 – Devotion

He comes back, he comes back, he comes back, he  


 

#26 - Forever

"Stay," he murmurs against her palm, and Jyn wants to laugh, wants to cry, wants to lean down and kiss him, but she can only manage a nod; he smiles like she's gifted him worlds and succumbs at last to the sedatives.  


 

#27 - Blood

Bodhi stands over them in the cargo bay and shouts for medics even as the doors groan open; he can't tell where Jyn's blood pool ends and Cassian's begins (there's blood on his boots, their blood's on his boots, there's blood mixed with the dust of Jedha on his boots) and Bodhi shouts until he can't see the blood anymore.  


 

#28 - Sickness

"It will be alright," he soothes, smiling gently, and pulls the trigger; Tivik's filthy jacket smolders from the blaster bolt, Cassian's skin burns like a fever - but he climbs anyway, for the intel, for the cause, for the hope that it will have been worth it.  


 

#29 - Melody

"The data indicates that my tune was perfectly pitched and my rhythm correct in accordance to popular convention," K2SO informs them haughtily, and Cassian uses every trick he knows to keep a straight face as his friend adds, "clearly the problem lies with Solo's inability to appreciate music," which nearly breaks him as Jyn buries her face into Cassian's side, shaking.  


 

#30 – Star

“Matter is never destroyed,” she tells him, staring at the red light shining through the delicate skin between her fingers, and he has the strange urge to reach out and cup his hands around hers, like shielding a small flame from the cold wind, “he said everything inside of us was once inside the heart of a star.”  


 

#31 – Home

“Shara threatened to come drag you by the ear if you tried to skip again,” Jyn points at him, “and she somehow got Chirrut _and_ Baze to agree to help, so you might as well give it up, you’re going to your promotion party.”

 

 

#32 – Confusion

“Oh, oh dear,” the quartermaster’s flustered assistant tilts her head at them and sends her lekku swinging in distress; “I’m so sorry, it’s just, um, your records have you listed as partners,” she stutters, “and bonded pairs usually share quarters, so, um, do you need me to assign you another, um, another room?”

 

 

#33 – Fear

It’s probably a sign that something is deeply broken in him, but Cassian can’t deny the hot rush of pride and lust that hits him as the last ‘trooper drops at her feet, and the now lone Imperial officer cringes away from Jyn’s fiery eyes, her fierce grin.

 

 

#34 - Lightning/Thunder

She’s braced for the fight, but just as the gangster shifts his weight to strike, a bolt from the sky spears into his forehead, passes through into the chest of the idiot standing right behind him, and finally burns into the foot of the third gangster, who screams and scrambles from the alley like a Sith Lord is on his tail; Jyn throws a smirk at the rooftop and hurries on towards the objective.

 

 

#35 – Bonds

“Not much of a spar, if you barely got my heart rate up,” Jyn teases, and then he reaches out and winds his fingers through the loose ends of her linen hand wraps, tugging her hands up and pinning them to the wall over her head; Cassian’s face is shadowed and his voice is soft as he leans down and murmurs, “and now?”

 

 

#36 – Market

“So, uh,” the clean-cut, bright eyed, entirely too handsome pilot asks Cassian as he and his smiling buddies all watch Jyn saunter across the hangar bay, “you happen to know if she’s single?”

 

 

#37 – Technology

“Love seems like an illogical business,” Kay notes, watching Cassian watch Jyn Erso smirking indulgently as Solo waves his hands to illustrate their latest adventure; “you should consider overwriting it in your next update,” Kay advises, and Cassian looks away.

 

 

#38 – Gift

There’s a new vibroblade clipped to her holster when she wakes up, and trails her fingers across his shoulders as she passes to sit next to him at breakfast; he finds a pair of thick, soft socks rolled in his boots and the hard lines of his mask soften when he meets her eyes across the briefing room.

 

 

#39 – Smile

“How do you two always get _into_ these situations?” Baze grumbles over the comm, and Cassian quirks a wry eyebrow as she shoots him a sharp-edged grin, and what parts of her mind aren’t occupied with the pursuing ‘troopers makes a mental note to kiss that little smirk off his face, later.

 

 

#40 – Innocence

Jyn’s knees are weak, her head light, her belly caving in; but Saw left her to starve so she shoves the half-rotten sandwich in her mouth and keeps going, keeps going, because she won’t give him, won’t give anyone, the fucking _satisfaction_ of killing her.

 

 

#41 – Completion

The war isn’t over, Cassian acknowledges this even as he watches the debris burning across Endor’s sky, a malicious part of his brain that will never really fade whispers that maybe it will never _be_ over, not for either of them, not really; still, he feels her arms tighten around his neck and lets himself pretend, just for a moment, that it is.

 

 

#42 – Clouds

“Hold on,” Bodhi laughs as he barrel-rolls the U-wing up through the thunderhead, and Cassian lunges to catch her around the waist before she gets flung against the bulkhead; he tightens his arms and glares at his grinning pilot as Bodhi sets the ship skimming along the surface of the endless white field of clouds, Jyn braced against his chest and laughing.

 

 

#43 – Sky

He powers down the non-essential systems until they are only lit by the emergency lights; in the dim cockpit, Jyn catches herself thinking that the blue-white glare of hyperspace flickering in his dark eyes are like shooting stars across the night sky (shit, she’s too tired to be this close to him, she needs to back away from him now and she definitely needs to stop reading that sappy poetry book Chirrut gave her).

 

 

#44 – Heaven

His weight is pinning her to the mattress, his arms tight around her shoulders, his breath hot in her ear; she’s never been so enveloped by someone, never dreamed she would allow herself to be so ensnared, but it’s Cassian, it’s safe, it’s _home_.

 

 

#45 – Hell

Draven shakes his head for the fifth day in a row and says “you’ll know something when I do, Andor,” with something like compassion in his hard stare, and Cassian goes back to his empty room, his empty bed, and lays on top of his cold sheets staring into the dark with the comm link by his head to wait alone in the silence.

 

 

#46 – Sun

“It’s too damn bright, I’m practically blind out here,” she grumbles, and Cassian looks at her pointedly; she winces an instant before Chirrut says blandly, “I agree.”

 

 

#47 – Moon

She never sees it, her father’s terrible second child, the killer of worlds, the grey beast come to gorge on the carnage of war; she stares into the light on the horizon and presses Cassian’s face into her shoulder, and they do not look up.

 

 

#48 – Waves

The loss of Jedha sends a shock wave through the faithful, and Jyn clutches Bodhi’s hand as he shudders and flails in the wake; the loss of Alderaan is a roaring tsunami that rips through the galaxy, and Jyn wraps herself as tightly around Cassian as she can while he gasps against her neck, trying not to drown.

 

 

#49 – Hair

Jyn runs her fingers through the rough stubble on his jaw and slurs through the pleasant haze of all those lovely painkillers, “tha’s how I knew it was you, Rebel You, and not, y’know, an a-li-as,” she enunciates carefully, proud of getting the word out proper, “’cause imps aren’t, aren’t y’now, fuzzy.”

 

 

#50 – Supernova

“You can make it if you leave me,” Cassian manages through red, gritted teeth, but Jyn turns flashing green eyes to his and snarls “together, or not at all,” and her words ring in his head, wind around his heart, surge with his blood and brand themselves into his bones; however long he lives, they will be a part of him, and so will she.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on 3 other WIPs right now, but I had to sit through a 5 hour brief with a bunch of the most boring old, white Republican men, refusing to laugh at their old, white Republican man-jokes, and this is what I scribbled on my notepad to look busy and stay sane.


End file.
